Polar Viewpoints about social media in the classroom? Sounds like just about everything else surrounding the classroom.

Schools are polarized places, so I have learned to carefully choose what I fight for vocally.  Last year, an experienced teacher said to me, ” if you can’t control it, make yourself and others as comfortable in it as you can.”    The phrase has stuck with me, as I realized that as much as I may dislike certain aspects of our profession, it is not my job to overtly object, because sometimes the objections won’t change things.  Rather, all they do is make myself and others more upset.

This all segues to social media usage.  Our district has a strict list of websites that it allows.  Although I understand the precautions behind the district’s decisions, it is also frustrating when I am planning from home and realize the sites I want to use are not available at school.  We are getting better about our blocked sites, in that you can ask for sites to be unblocked for educational purposes, but this still delays lessons and teachable moments.  As much as myself and others may complain about the strict firewall, complaining only makes the situation worse because it doesn’t change it.  I am now concentrating on what I can do within my district and what can be done with social networking.  And, if I feel strongly enough about something that is blocked, I know that we have a receptive technology department that is ready to listen to my rationale and help me either find something that is allowed in our district that does the same thing, or, I can unblock the resource.